Surveying the Sacred

Mar. 25 - May 3, 2024

Surveying the Sacred: Analysis of the Scheuring Collection of Eastern Orthodox Icons

In 2005 Purdue University Galleries was gifted over 120 religious icons from the collection of Katherine “Betsy” Scheuring (1918-2011). The gift culminated in a 2006 exhibition and catalogue titled Spirit Made Tangible: The Scheuring Icon Collection. Beginning in 2023, additional analysis was undertaken through the support of the Henry Luce Foundation. This included scholarly research by Dr. Karen Kettering, a specialist on icons, and Purdue Galleries’ staff and interns as well as non-destructive testing conducted by Dr. Kory Cooper in the Anthropology department and Dr. Nicholas Morato Guiterrez in the Chemistry department with assistance from conversation scientists at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This groundbreaking research will help scholars better understand how these works were constructed, identify specific regions where they were created, more precise dates on when they were made, and how they were interpreted by the devout through the combination of scholarly research and scientific testing.